A Massachusetts man faces federal charges for allegedly posting death threats against US President Donald Trump on Facebook, with authorities finding swords at his home.
NEW YORK: An American man has been arrested on federal charges for allegedly threatening to kill US President Donald Trump in a series of social media posts.
Andrew Emerald, 45, was indicted on March 19 on eight counts of interstate transmission of threatening communications, a charge carrying a potential five-year prison sentence.
According to a Department of Justice release, Emerald allegedly wrote eight Facebook messages last year threatening to injure and kill the president.
In one post from May 2025, he allegedly wrote, “Either Trump is dead and in the ground by 2026 or I am hunting him down and putting him there.”
A later post that month contained an expletive-laden threat to attack Trump’s Florida resort.
“I’ll make sure you’re at Mar-a-Lago when I burn it to the f****** ground,” Emerald allegedly wrote.
The FBI stated that when agents executed an arrest warrant at his Massachusetts home, Emerald refused to come outside and appeared to brandish a long metal sword. He told agents they would have to shoot him, according to a court filing.
A crisis negotiator and a local police officer eventually persuaded him to leave the residence peacefully. The FBI shared pictures of several swords and blades allegedly found inside Emerald’s home following the arrest.
In another alleged post, Emerald wrote, “I plan to go to DC with my sword [sword emoji] and kill trump and as (many) of the domestic terrorist he emboldens as I can.” Authorities had previously questioned him in 2018 over a possible threat to shoot the president during Trump’s first term.
This case follows several similar incidents involving online threats against Trump. In March, a Virginia man was sentenced to more than two years in prison for sending online threats to kill the US president.
Trump was grazed by a bullet in an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania campaign rally in July 2024 as he campaigned for the presidency.